When humans are not unique: Perspectives on suffering and redemption

This paper explores how two realms in which humans have traditionally been thought to hold unique capacities, in suffering and in redemption, are increasingly challenged. With scientific evidence pointing strongly towards the reality of non-human suffering, new questions are also raised in theodicy. Part of the solution to the problem of suffering is redemption, and the latter half of this paper introduces and critiques several different models of creaturely redemption. These perspectives cause us to recognise the deep continuities between human and non-human animals, and they therefore encourage us to define human uniqueness more in terms of role rather than capacity.